'60 and '61 at Lions Drag Strip - Lions And Monsters

Reader Chuck Weitlauf had a homework assignment from a photography class he took with his wife a few years ago: Find old slides. After his wife’s passing, he began looking through the boxes again. In his search he found one marked “Korea/Drag Racing.” Chuck thought to mail the drag ones to us. They are from 1960 and 1961 at the legendary Lions Drag Strip in Long Beach, California. The photos depict the scene at Lions in the pits and in the stands. Lions was in Chuck’s backyard, and in the evenings he used to sit on his back porch and listen to the sounds of the track—on the days he wasn’t there playing with his camera, that is. This collection of photos includes a famous car before it became famous, wearing an earlier, different outfit (photo 1), a first of its kind (photo 5), a less-famous sister car (photos 2-4), and a very famous Bonneville record holder (photos 6-7). Thanks, Chuck—you have a good eye for the cool stuff.

2/8This red, twin-engine comp coupe is the car that was later known as the Dye-Hampton Too Bad after it gained twin blowers. Don Hampton, who founded Hampton Blowers, says the car in its earlier version—running either Oldsmobile or Cadillac engines—ran “like crap” until he added the blowers (check out the homemade intake made out of pipes), possibly helping to develop his company. It later gained a purplish color, and according to the company’s website (<a href="" rel=”nofollow” onclick="javascript:window.open('http://www.hamptonblowers.com');return false;">HamptonBlowers.com</a>), “Hampton modified the coupe into what may have been history’s only twin-engine Funny Car, the American Band Stand Corvette.”